Abuse of Power: Erosion of our Liberties and Rights

On wiretapping, Bush isn't listening to the Constitution
By Edward M. Kennedy
The Boston Globe

"THE PRESIDENT is not above the law; he is not King George. Yet, with sorrow, we are now learning that in this great land we have an administration that has refused to follow well-crafted, longstanding procedures that require the president to get a court order before spying on people within the United States. With outrage, we learn that this administration believes that it does not have to follow the law of the land."
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The Freewheeling Executive
By Aziz Huq
TomPaine.com

"The administration seems to believe Congress has signed off on an "anything goes" approach to counterterrorism."
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Terror agency operates in U.S.

"The Pentagon's newest counterterrorism agency, is carrying out intelligence collection, analysis and operations within the United States and abroad, according to a Pentagon fact sheet on the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, provided to The Washington Post."
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All Eyes On You: How Spy Chips Are Quietly Reshaping Privacy
By Martin H. Bosworth
ConsumerAffairs.Com

"You may not realize it, but that pack of disposable razors you just bought can enable you to be tracked wherever you go. Same with that discount card you used to buy the razors in the first place."
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Congressional Perks: How the Trappings of Office Trap Taxpayers
NTUF Policy Paper 131
By Peter J. Sepp

"Since the founding of the Republic, Americans have had a healthy skepticism of the concentration of power. The Framers of the Constitution established a system they hoped would prevent not only the disproportionate accumulation of influence in one branch of government, but also the disproportionate accumulation of privilege.

Today, Members of the United States Congress enjoy a vast web of perquisites that benefit them personally as well as professionally...."
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MEDIA ALERT: BRILLIANT FOOLS
Harold Pinter, John Le Carré And The Media

"The most effective way to control people is to control their assumptions about the world. The task of propaganda is to apply power-friendly labels and make them stick - it is the key to everything."
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On Hill, Anger and Calls for Hearings Greet News of Stateside Surveillance
By Dan Eggen and Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, December 17, 2005

"Congressional leaders of both parties called for hearings and issued condemnations yesterday in the wake of reports that President Bush signed a secret order in 2002 allowing the National Security Agency to spy on hundreds of U.S. citizens and other residents without court-approved warrants."
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Bush: I refused to discuss it BEFORE I discussed it.



BEFORE:

Bush Declines to Discuss Report on Eavesdropping
By Christine Hauser
The New York Times

President Bush said today that he would not discuss ongoing intelligence operations in the United States, after a report in The New York Times said he secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States.

"We do not discuss ongoing intelligence operations to protect the country, and the reason why is that there's an enemy that lurks, that would like to know exactly what we're trying to do to stop them," Mr. Bush said in an interview to be broadcast this evening on "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer."

AFTER (ONE DAY LATER):

President Acknowledges Approving Secretive Eavesdropping
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer

"President Bush said yesterday that he secretly ordered the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans with suspected ties to terrorists because it was 'critical to saving American lives' and 'consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution.'"

Bush Vows to Continue Spying on Americans
The Associated Press

Reacting to Bush's vow to continue spying on Americans, Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., said the president's remarks were "breathtaking in how extreme they were." Feingold said it was "absurd" that Bush said he relied on his inherent power as president to authorize the wiretaps. "If that's true, he doesn't need the Patriot Act because he can just make it up as he goes along. I tell you, he's President George Bush, not King George Bush."

Washington - President Bush said Saturday he has no intention of stopping his personal authorizations of a post-Sept. 11 secret eavesdropping program in the US, lashing out at those involved in revealing it while defending it as crucial to preventing future attacks.
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Bush's Fumbles Spur New Talk of Oversight on Hill
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer

"After a series of embarrassing disclosures, Congress is reconsidering its relatively lenient oversight of the Bush administration."
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Pushing the Limits Of Wartime Powers
By Barton Gellman and Dafna Linzer
Washington Post

"In his four-year campaign against al Qaeda, President Bush has turned the U.S. national security apparatus inward to secretly collect information on American citizens on a scale unmatched since the intelligence reforms of the 1970s."
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This Call May Be Monitored ...
New York Times
Editorial

"After 9/11, says The New York Times, Americans expected some reasonable and carefully measured trade-offs between security and civil liberties. They trusted their elected leaders to follow long-established democratic and legal principles and to make any changes in the light of day. But President Bush had other ideas. He secretly and recklessly expanded the government's powers in dangerous and unnecessary ways that eroded civil liberties and may also have violated the law."
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Violating the Constitution
By Karen Kwiatkowski
t r u t h o u t Editorial

Retired USAF lieutenant colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, who spent two years at NSA headquartes, discusses the fact that President Bush signed an executive order that allegedly allowed the collection and operational intelligence use of international telephone or electronic mail conversations, even if one or more participants were Americans. She says many questions must be asked and answered, including the most important one: "Is it right?"